maxlords
10-20-2005, 11:13 PM
Sleepers of the Week: Point Blank 1, 2, & 3
Since the Sleeper was mysteriously absent last week, I’ve decided to do a bit of a special edition of the Sleeper of the Week this week. Not one, not two, but three, yes three different games to review! Now how much would you pay? Well…you can’t because the Sleeper of the Week is free as always! This week we’re venturing into the wide world of gun games with the Point Blank series for PS1. Point Blank is a tongue in cheek light gun series from Namco, makers of Time Crisis, Mazan: Flash of Blade, and other nifty arcade games that no one can afford! First, we’ll take a look at Point Blank, the game that started it all.
Point Blank was originally created as an arcade game. Full of mini-games with no really deep plot, the whole point is to shoot, well, everything! Mini-games raise in difficulty from simple to obscenely difficult, with everything killing schools of pirhanas to fighting a room full of ninjas. Many unique and different games are contained in each difficulty level. In ten minutes you can fight dragons, destroy plates, kill criminals a la Lethal Enforcers and play carnival matching games. But that’s not where the fun ends with Point Blank. The real meat of the PS1 version of the game is in the additional mode. And what might that mode be? Nothing less than an RPG/Gun Game! You control Dr. Don and Dr. Dan as they hunt the world for the elusive Gunball. No one knows what the Gunball is of course, but that won’t stop you! Along the way you’ll explore overworlds, visit villages and talk to their inhabitants, and fight in random encounters, all with a light gun! Random encounters consist of enemies challenging you to gun battles completely out of the blue. Very odd, but definitely endearing and strange. Some of them are quite difficult as well! It’s one of the most original RPGs ever created, just tossed in as an extra along with the main arcade game!
The music for Point Blank is nothing special of course. It’s happy and arcade-like, and very simple, but it fits well and that’s really all that’s needed for a game that’s mostly 10-20 second mini-games. The RPG is pretty much the same but with looped tracks. The graphics are very cartoonish and well-animated, but pixellated as expected from the PS1. Overall it’s the challenge of the games themselves and the hilarious fun, especially from two player competitive modes that can be played in the main game. Duking it out with a friend is one of the best parts of Point Blank, especially considering the extreme accuracy of the Namco Guncom. The gun came in a package with Point Blank…a large cardboard box version of the game which had the gun and the smaller jewel case inside. You could also buy Point Blank separate from the gun, but it’s virtually unplayable without it…the controller crosshair speed is just far too slow and inaccurate for this level of play. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with Point Blank if you like gun games, nor if you’re a fan of unique and quirky RPGs!
However, that’s not where the fun ends! Point Blank also had two sequels, Point Blank 2 and Point Blank 3! Point Blank 2 does much of what Point Blank did, but with more detail, more challenge, and a lot more speed. The game has a main menu consisting of four modes, Training, Party Mode, Point Blank Castle, and Theme Park Mode. Training is of course obvious, but Party Mode consists of multiplayer variants of Point Blank 2 such as a tile based Turf War, a Competition Mode, and a Team Battle Mode for up to eight players! Point Blank Castle is the main arcade mode with four arcade difficulty versions, as well as a head to head Versus mode and an Endurance mode that just plays non-stop mini gun games until you run out of lives. Endurance mode especially is an incredibly grueling version of the game…very very challenging. Theme Park mode is the last option, consisting of a single player story mode that works a plethora of gun minigames into the storyline. Inside the single player story mode, you’ll face amusement park rides with random encounters. Haunted houses with ghosts, spaceships with asteroids, a submarine and even a bullet train are your arenas.
On top of all this, there are stacks upon stacks of new gun minigames in the arcade mode as well! Shoot a single flipping coin out of the air with one bullet, or the cork out of the top of a wine bottle without shattering the bottle! Blow all the armor off of a knight or pump bullets at high speed into a falling car. Target games galore litter the arcade mode as well with plates, human targets, dishes and more all waiting to be decimated by your Guncom! The music and graphics are pretty much the same as Point Blank of course, it’s just all new minigames and a new type of story mode, as well as all the other goodies! Between Point Blank and Point Blank 2, there are enough modes and minigames to make even the most jaded gamers happy! But that’s not even where Namco stops! Point Blank 1 and 2 were popular enough to spawn yet another sequel to complete the Point Blank trilogy, Point Blank 3!
Point Blank 3 is the closest version of the game to the arcade versions. It only consists of arcade variants with no story or RPG mode, and contains the Versus, Endurance, Arcade, and Training modes from Point Blank 2. However, it does have all new minigames, and isn’t that what’s great about the Point Blank series anyway? The graphics are significantly better on this final game, and the gun accuracy required is nothing short of insane on a few of the more difficult levels. All new challenges await, from new single shot scenarios to challenging high-speed brain teasers. All your favorite styles of play from the other two games are there as well, such as protecting Dr. Don and Dr. Dan from flaming torches thrown by natives and shooting down an alien invasion. All sorts of target challenges are abound too, as are high speed firing tasks and many more. It’s almost like an expansion pack for Point Blank 2. Basically, for anyone who couldn’t get their fill in the first two games, this one will blow you away (no pun intended)! Slightly better music here as well, with some catchy but short tunes and a little cleaner sound, but that’s not a surprise from a later generation PS1 game.
Ultimately, you can’t have much more light gun fun than the Point Blank series! From RPGs to story modes to eight player challenges, there’s something for everyone between the three games of the Point Blank trilogy! As for pricing, you should be able to get any of the Point Blank games for under $20 each if you’re patient. Each game had a large box variant that came packaged with the Guncom, as well as a jewel case version with just the game. The large boxes are fairly uncommon to find, especially for the first Point Blank. Figure anywhere between $20 and $50 for a complete large box version depending on the seller. You might find a deal on one and you might not….the prices online and in retail stores seem to fluctuate on these titles. Thankfully none of them is particularly rare or hard to find. Go check em out, you won’t regret it! Here’s some pics from each game in the series….sorry about the quality and size but there’s almost no screens around and I didn’t want to overload the servers with massive amounts of large pics!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/8fad5bd2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/0328b8c7.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/8393d84c.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/3c580825.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/7f393ca1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/84d13a2a.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/4cfa4c08.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/aa39599e.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/f809849c.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/da35970c.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/0073e7b1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/5730b568.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/f1a295e3.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/6ea3470a.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/3746eb8c.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/e5d284df.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/01e68104.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/c78e95d7.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/3394d5b0.jpg
Since the Sleeper was mysteriously absent last week, I’ve decided to do a bit of a special edition of the Sleeper of the Week this week. Not one, not two, but three, yes three different games to review! Now how much would you pay? Well…you can’t because the Sleeper of the Week is free as always! This week we’re venturing into the wide world of gun games with the Point Blank series for PS1. Point Blank is a tongue in cheek light gun series from Namco, makers of Time Crisis, Mazan: Flash of Blade, and other nifty arcade games that no one can afford! First, we’ll take a look at Point Blank, the game that started it all.
Point Blank was originally created as an arcade game. Full of mini-games with no really deep plot, the whole point is to shoot, well, everything! Mini-games raise in difficulty from simple to obscenely difficult, with everything killing schools of pirhanas to fighting a room full of ninjas. Many unique and different games are contained in each difficulty level. In ten minutes you can fight dragons, destroy plates, kill criminals a la Lethal Enforcers and play carnival matching games. But that’s not where the fun ends with Point Blank. The real meat of the PS1 version of the game is in the additional mode. And what might that mode be? Nothing less than an RPG/Gun Game! You control Dr. Don and Dr. Dan as they hunt the world for the elusive Gunball. No one knows what the Gunball is of course, but that won’t stop you! Along the way you’ll explore overworlds, visit villages and talk to their inhabitants, and fight in random encounters, all with a light gun! Random encounters consist of enemies challenging you to gun battles completely out of the blue. Very odd, but definitely endearing and strange. Some of them are quite difficult as well! It’s one of the most original RPGs ever created, just tossed in as an extra along with the main arcade game!
The music for Point Blank is nothing special of course. It’s happy and arcade-like, and very simple, but it fits well and that’s really all that’s needed for a game that’s mostly 10-20 second mini-games. The RPG is pretty much the same but with looped tracks. The graphics are very cartoonish and well-animated, but pixellated as expected from the PS1. Overall it’s the challenge of the games themselves and the hilarious fun, especially from two player competitive modes that can be played in the main game. Duking it out with a friend is one of the best parts of Point Blank, especially considering the extreme accuracy of the Namco Guncom. The gun came in a package with Point Blank…a large cardboard box version of the game which had the gun and the smaller jewel case inside. You could also buy Point Blank separate from the gun, but it’s virtually unplayable without it…the controller crosshair speed is just far too slow and inaccurate for this level of play. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with Point Blank if you like gun games, nor if you’re a fan of unique and quirky RPGs!
However, that’s not where the fun ends! Point Blank also had two sequels, Point Blank 2 and Point Blank 3! Point Blank 2 does much of what Point Blank did, but with more detail, more challenge, and a lot more speed. The game has a main menu consisting of four modes, Training, Party Mode, Point Blank Castle, and Theme Park Mode. Training is of course obvious, but Party Mode consists of multiplayer variants of Point Blank 2 such as a tile based Turf War, a Competition Mode, and a Team Battle Mode for up to eight players! Point Blank Castle is the main arcade mode with four arcade difficulty versions, as well as a head to head Versus mode and an Endurance mode that just plays non-stop mini gun games until you run out of lives. Endurance mode especially is an incredibly grueling version of the game…very very challenging. Theme Park mode is the last option, consisting of a single player story mode that works a plethora of gun minigames into the storyline. Inside the single player story mode, you’ll face amusement park rides with random encounters. Haunted houses with ghosts, spaceships with asteroids, a submarine and even a bullet train are your arenas.
On top of all this, there are stacks upon stacks of new gun minigames in the arcade mode as well! Shoot a single flipping coin out of the air with one bullet, or the cork out of the top of a wine bottle without shattering the bottle! Blow all the armor off of a knight or pump bullets at high speed into a falling car. Target games galore litter the arcade mode as well with plates, human targets, dishes and more all waiting to be decimated by your Guncom! The music and graphics are pretty much the same as Point Blank of course, it’s just all new minigames and a new type of story mode, as well as all the other goodies! Between Point Blank and Point Blank 2, there are enough modes and minigames to make even the most jaded gamers happy! But that’s not even where Namco stops! Point Blank 1 and 2 were popular enough to spawn yet another sequel to complete the Point Blank trilogy, Point Blank 3!
Point Blank 3 is the closest version of the game to the arcade versions. It only consists of arcade variants with no story or RPG mode, and contains the Versus, Endurance, Arcade, and Training modes from Point Blank 2. However, it does have all new minigames, and isn’t that what’s great about the Point Blank series anyway? The graphics are significantly better on this final game, and the gun accuracy required is nothing short of insane on a few of the more difficult levels. All new challenges await, from new single shot scenarios to challenging high-speed brain teasers. All your favorite styles of play from the other two games are there as well, such as protecting Dr. Don and Dr. Dan from flaming torches thrown by natives and shooting down an alien invasion. All sorts of target challenges are abound too, as are high speed firing tasks and many more. It’s almost like an expansion pack for Point Blank 2. Basically, for anyone who couldn’t get their fill in the first two games, this one will blow you away (no pun intended)! Slightly better music here as well, with some catchy but short tunes and a little cleaner sound, but that’s not a surprise from a later generation PS1 game.
Ultimately, you can’t have much more light gun fun than the Point Blank series! From RPGs to story modes to eight player challenges, there’s something for everyone between the three games of the Point Blank trilogy! As for pricing, you should be able to get any of the Point Blank games for under $20 each if you’re patient. Each game had a large box variant that came packaged with the Guncom, as well as a jewel case version with just the game. The large boxes are fairly uncommon to find, especially for the first Point Blank. Figure anywhere between $20 and $50 for a complete large box version depending on the seller. You might find a deal on one and you might not….the prices online and in retail stores seem to fluctuate on these titles. Thankfully none of them is particularly rare or hard to find. Go check em out, you won’t regret it! Here’s some pics from each game in the series….sorry about the quality and size but there’s almost no screens around and I didn’t want to overload the servers with massive amounts of large pics!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/8fad5bd2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/0328b8c7.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/8393d84c.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/3c580825.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/7f393ca1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/84d13a2a.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/4cfa4c08.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/aa39599e.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/f809849c.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/da35970c.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/0073e7b1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/5730b568.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/f1a295e3.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/6ea3470a.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/3746eb8c.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/e5d284df.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/01e68104.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/c78e95d7.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/3394d5b0.jpg